I know this has probably been done to death and I have used the search but never really got a definitive answer. I just recently picked up a 2003 Cannondale S440 and have already gone through and changed out all the fluids and cleaned everything as far as fork internals
Motor and tranny filters and so on. I was looking through my manual on SMJ and on here regarding the amount of fluid to refill in the crank case and from what I have read I am coming up with 1.6 quarts according to the board. However when I follow the instructions for refilling I end up with about 875cc or approx 3/4 of a quarts in the frame spar/motor and about the same in the tranny. I am using Mobil 1 4T in the motor and Spetra Gold gear saver in the tranny (80W). Am I doing something wrong or is it supposed to be 1.6 quarts total in the bike (motor and tranny)? When draining the fluids I drain all the ports and clean all the filter completely. The first time I filled the frame spar back up I filled it until it came up about halfway in the frame spar ran the bike for a minute and after it settled for about 5 mins filled it back to the half way mark in the sight glass. This totaled 875cc. The next day I saw the oil didnt appear in the site glass so I filled it again. Needless to say it started spitting oil out the vent tube on the way to work so I read up on it and found that I had probably over filled. The instructions I read though stated to fill the frame spar with 1 quart, start the bike and let it sit. When I went ahead and changed the oil again and refilled it I followed this method and again it was too full (over the top of the site glass). Can someone clarify for me the proceedure. The tranny is pretty straight forward but the motor seems to be a bit more complicated. As of right now I have the oil filled with about 875cc and when it starts up the oil comes up in the frame spar about half way into the site glass. ,Don't feel like your the only guy. Overfilling has happened to just about every owner in some way or another until they learn the trick to checking the oil. I have never had less than 1 qt doing oil changes. It's always somewhere around 1.2 to 1.4 What I do is I lean the bike over to the left and then back to the right to help get most of the oil out. And I let it drip for a long while. When I refill the engine I always add 1 full quart then start the engine for a few seconds and stop it. Then I top it off to the sight glass. The rule of thumb being, never go by what the sight glass says if the bike has been sitting more than 10 minutes. Always check the oil right after you start the motor and shut the engine off. Reason being, the oil will drain out of the frame slowly over time so it makes the sight glass inaccurate the longer the bike sits. And every bike is different in how quickly the oil drains out of the frame. _________________ ,,,
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